Prepare a message about knightly weapons. Armament of a knight in the Middle Ages

They preferred armor. Chain armor began to lose its relevance when longbows and crossbows were invented. Their penetrating power was so great that the mesh of metal rings became useless. Therefore, I had to protect myself with solid metal sheets. Later, when firearms took a dominant position, armor was also abandoned. The rules were dictated by military progress, and the gunsmiths only adapted to them.

A knight in chain mail with a surcoat over it
There are espaulers on the shoulders (the ancestors of epaulettes)

At first, chain mail covered only the chest and back. Then it was complemented with long sleeves and mittens. By the 12th century, chain mail stockings appeared. So almost all parts of the body were protected. But the most important thing is the head. The helmet covered her, but her face remained open. Then they made a solid helmet that also covered the face. But in order to put it on, a thick fabric cap was first put on the head. A chain mail headdress was pulled over him. And on top they placed a metal riveted helmet on his head.

Naturally, my head was very hot. After all, the inside of the helmet was also covered with suede. Therefore, many holes were made in it for ventilation. But this did not help much, and the knights tried to remove the heavy metal protection from their heads immediately after the battle.

Knight's helmets of the 12th-13th centuries

The shields were made in a teardrop shape. Knight's coats of arms were applied to them. The coats of arms were also displayed on special shoulder shields - espaulers. They were subsequently replaced by epaulettes. The espaulers themselves were made not of metal, but of leather, and performed purely decorative functions. Helmet decorations were made of wood and covered with leather. Most often they were made in the form of horns, eagle wings or figures of people and animals.

The knight's weapons included a spear, sword, and dagger. The handles of the swords were long so that they could be grasped with two hands. Sometimes used instead of a sword falchion. This is a cutting blade similar in shape to a machete.

Falchion on top and two knight's swords

At the end of the 12th century, the first armor for horses appeared. These were first quilted and then chain mail blankets. A mask was pulled over the animal's face. It was usually made from leather and covered with paint.

In the 13th century, leather plates began to be applied to chain mail. They were made from several layers of boiled leather. They were added only to the arms and legs. And, of course, surcoat. It was very important element clothes. It was a fabric caftan that was worn over armor. Rich knights sewed themselves surcoats from the most expensive fabrics. They were decorated with coats of arms and emblems.

This type of clothing was required. According to the concepts of Catholic morality, undisguised knightly armor was akin to a naked body. Therefore, appearing in them in public was considered indecent. That's why they were covered with cloth. In addition, the white fabric reflected the sun's rays, and the metal heated up less on hot summer days.

Knight in armor

Knights in armor

As already mentioned, in the second half of the 13th century, large bows and crossbows appeared. The bow reached 1.8 meters in height, and an arrow fired from it pierced chain mail at a distance of 400 meters. Crossbows were not as powerful. They pierced armor at a distance of 120 meters. Therefore, we had to gradually abandon chain mail, and they were replaced by solid metal armor.

The swords have also changed. Previously they were slashing, but now they have become piercing. The sharp end could pierce the joint of the plates and hit the enemy. They began to attach visors to helmets in the shape of an elongated cone. This shape prevented arrows from hitting the helmet. They slid along the metal, but did not pierce it. Helmets of this shape began to be called Bundhugels or "dog faces".

By the beginning of the 15th century, armor had completely replaced chain mail, and knightly armor had taken on a different quality. Metal began to be decorated with gilding and niello. If the metal was undecorated, it was called “white.” Helmets continued to be improved.

From left to right: arme, bundhugelam, bikok

The helmet was quite original bicock. His visor did not rise, but opened like a door. It was considered the strongest and most expensive helmet arme. He withstood any blows. It was invented by Italian masters. True, it weighed about 5 kg, but the knight felt absolutely safe in it.

Entire schools of craftsmen appeared who competed with each other in the manufacture of armor. Italian armor was very different in appearance from German and Spanish. And they had very little in common with the English ones.

As the craftsmanship improved, so did the price. The armor was getting more and more expensive. Therefore, armor sets came into fashion. That is, you could order the full set, or you could only pay for part of it. The number of parts in such prefabricated armor reached up to 200. The weight of a complete set sometimes reached 40 kg. If a person shackled in them fell, he could no longer get up without outside help.

But we must not forget that people get used to everything. The knights felt quite comfortable in their armor. All you had to do was walk around in them for two weeks, and they became like family. It should also be noted that after the appearance of armor, shields began to disappear. A professional warrior, clad in iron plates, no longer needed this type of protection. The shield lost its relevance, since the armor itself served as a shield.

Time passed, and knightly armor gradually turned from a means of protection into a luxury item. This was due to the advent of firearms. The bullet pierced the metal. Of course, the armor could be made thicker, but in this case its weight increased significantly. And this had a negative impact on both horses and riders.

At first they fired stone bullets from matchlock guns, and later lead bullets. And even if they did not pierce the metal, they made large dents on it and rendered the armor unusable. Therefore, by the end of the 16th century, knights in armor became rare. And at the beginning of the 17th century they disappeared completely.

Only isolated elements remained from the armor. These are metal breastplates (cuirasses) and helmets. The main striking force in European armies were arquebusiers and musketeers. The sword replaced the sword, and the pistol replaced the spear. A new stage of history began, in which there was no longer a place for knights dressed in armor.

People rich enough to not have to work constitute a privileged class, strictly separated from the rest of society. In this upper class, everyone, excluding clergy, are warriors by profession, in the terminology of the Middle Ages, “knights”.

Charlemagne also obliged all free people of his empire to bear arms. The need to protect oneself, a tendency towards idleness and adventure, a predisposition to military life brought in all medieval Europe to the formation of a military aristocracy. To attract people to military service, there was no need for the highest authority of the state. Since secular people believed military life the only honorable way of life, then everyone strove for it; the military, knightly class included everyone who had enough money to join it.

The first condition for becoming a knight was the opportunity to purchase weapons at your own expense. Meanwhile, starting from the 9th century, they fought exclusively on horses. Therefore, the medieval warrior was called chevalier in France, caver in the south, caballero in Spain, Ritter in Germany, and in Latin texts the ancient name for a soldier, miles, became synonymous with a knight.

Throughout feudal Europe, war is fought in the same way, and the warriors are armed almost identically.

Armor and weapons of medieval knights

A person who is fully armed for battle, a knight, has his body protected by armor. Until the end of the 9th century, this was armor, a tunic made of leather or fabric, covered with metal plaques or rings; later armor is everywhere replaced by chain mail, a shirt made of metal rings with gauntlets and a hood and with a slit at the top so that it can be worn like a shirt. At first the chain mail reached the feet; when it was shortened to the knees, they began to cover their legs with hoop stockings for protection; Spurs shaped like the tip of a spear were attached to these stockings. The hood covered the back of the head and head and reached the chin, leaving only the eyes, nose and mouth open.

During battle, a medieval knight put a helmet on his head - a conical-shaped steel cap surrounded by a rim and ending in a metal or glass ball (cimier); the helmet was equipped with an iron plate that protected the nose (nasal - nasal, it disappeared by the end of the 12th century) and was tied to the chain mail with leather straps. Only in the XIV century. armor made of metal plates and a helmet with a visor appear, which survived until the 17th century - weapons Bayard and Henry IV, which, however, is often mistaken for conventional weapons medieval knight.

To repel blows, the medieval knight wore a shield made of wood and leather, covered with metal strips and decorated in the middle with a plaque (boucle) made of gilded iron (hence the name of the shield - bouclier). At first round, the shield then becomes oblong and lengthens to the point that it covers the rider from shoulders to toes. The knights hung it around their necks on a wide belt; during the battle it was worn on left hand through handles located on the inside. It was on shields that, starting from the 12th century, they began to draw a coat of arms, recognized by one or another family for its emblem.

The knight's offensive weapons were a sword (branc), usually wide and short, with a flat hilt, and a spear with a long and thin shaft made of ash or hornbeam, ending with an iron tip in the shape of a diamond. Below the tip, a rectangular strip of material (gonfanon - banner) was nailed, which fluttered in the wind. The spear could be thrust into the ground with a handle ending in an iron tip.

Knights. Film 1. Chained in Iron

Dressed and armed in this way, the medieval knight was almost invulnerable, and over time the weapons were increasingly improved, making the warrior look like a living fortress. But at the same time he becomes so heavy that he needs a special kind of horse to fight. The knight has two horses with him: an ordinary one (palefroi) for riding, and a fighting one (dextrier), which is led by a servant by the bridle. Before the battle begins, the knight puts on his armor, mounts his war horse and rushes into battle, pointing his spear forward.

Only knights were considered true warriors; stories about medieval battles tell us only about them, and only about them the battle columns consisted. But they were accompanied on their campaigns by other riders on less hardy horses, dressed in a tunic and a hat, equipped with lighter and less expensive armor, armed with a small shield, a narrow sword, a pike, an ax or a bow. A knight who had heavy weapons could not do without these companions: they led his war horse (on the right side, hence the name dextrier), carried his shield, helped him put on armor at the moment of battle and sit in the saddle. Therefore, they were usually called valets (servants) or ècuyers (shield bearers), and in Latin - scutifer (shield bearer) or armiger (armiger). In the early Middle Ages, knights kept these squires in a subordinate position. Composed at the end of the 11th century. " Song of Roland"They are referred to as the lower class. They shaved their heads like servants and received coarser bread at table. But little by little brotherhood in arms brought the squires closer to the knights; in the 13th century both groups already constituted one class - the highest class of secular society, and both the ancient Latin name noble (nobilis), which constituted belonging to the upper class (edel in German), was applied to both.

Grade 6 can use an essay about knights in preparation for the lesson.

Who are knights? Briefly

The era of knights falls on the years 500 - 1500, that is, in the Middle Ages. It was marked by numerous wars, diseases and epidemics. Previously, infantry soldiers took part in hostilities. But since the invention of the stirrup and the improvement of the saddle, they began to fight on horseback, using a heavy spear as a weapon. Then the horsemen or mounted warriors began to be called knights.

It’s hard to imagine a knight without his faithful horse. He not only fought on it, but also hunted and participated in tournaments. Such horses cost a lot of money: only special breeds with strong build and endurance were selected for military purposes. These qualities were strengthened by constant training.

As a rule, knights were wealthy people and lived in castles with moats and surrounded by thick walls. Those who were poorer lived in stone houses with moats filled with water.

How could one become a knight?

The class of knights was formed from the children of the nobility: at the age of 7, sons were prepared to serve as pages. Boys were taught swimming, horse riding, fist fighting and the habit of wearing heavy battle armor. When they turned 12-14 years old, they became squires and left their family to serve and live in the knight’s castle. Here he learned to use a sword and a spear. At the age of 21, young people were solemnly accepted as knights.

Virtues of a Knight

The value of a knight is his dignity and honor. Therefore, he followed certain rules. Also, a knight must be generous. They owned wealth, which they received from extortions from peasants, military campaigns and robberies of neighboring feudal lands. Therefore, they distributed their wealth to those in need and “sponsored” talented and inventive individuals. Extravagance was a common and prestigious phenomenon for a knight of that time. It was believed that in this way he eradicates the sinful vices of stinginess, greed, self-interest and pride.

The knights were also preachers of morality and the Christian religion among Muslims. They demonstrated their military valor not only during campaigns, but also at knightly tournaments. On them he could show another of his virtues - generosity, sparing his defeated opponent.

How did the knights arm themselves?

The knights were armed with armor and various weapons. The vestment weighed up to 25 kg, so the master always had his own squire who helped to dress, undress and give weapons. Often war horses were also dressed in heavy armor.

Under his armor, the knight wore chain mail consisting of 1000 rings. Metal pants, gloves, a chin guard, a breastplate and parts that protected the face were attached to it. The image of a warrior was completed by a helmet and shoes with spurs.

• The knights were small people - their height did not exceed 160 cm.
• Under the knight's helmet, fleas and lice swarmed in the folds of his clothing. They washed no more than 3 times a year.
• Putting on and taking off the armor took neither more nor less - 3 hours. Therefore, during military campaigns, they often relieved themselves for themselves.
• For a long time, knights were considered the most powerful warriors on the field. No one could defeat them. The secret lay in an effective throwing weapon that instantly struck the heart of the enemy - a crossbow.
• In 1560, knighthood ceased to exist as a class of the population.
• The weapons were a spear and a sword. In addition, the knights owned a bow.

We hope that the message about knights helped you learn a lot useful information. You can add to the story about the knights using the comment form below.

A few explanations about knightly weapons will be useful in a book, on every page of which the name of one or another weapon appears. Therefore, before telling the story about the exploits of knighthood, we will describe each type of weapon and its purpose. This description is necessary because the weapons have become extremely diverse and much of them have already fallen into disuse.

Helmet or helmet (le heaume ou le casque). The helmet was quite deep, made of iron or steel, tapered towards the top, had a breastplate to which a visor was attached, and an iron breastplate (un haussecol) at the bottom; the breastplate was separated from the helmet and attached to it with a metal collar. The visor consisted of a fine lattice; it was slid under the visor of the helmet and lowered during the battle. A crest was put on the helmet; sovereigns wore a crown in the form of a crest, and knights wore other decorations.

Bigwig (l "armet ou bassinet). Shishak is a lightweight helmet, without a visor and without a breastplate; the knight took it with him and put it on when he left the battle to rest. Shishak differed from the helmet in weight, appearance and fixed platband.

Gobisson (le gaubisson). The knights wore a gobisson over their dress, something like a long sweatshirt made of quilted taffeta or leather stuffed with wool, tow or hair, to weaken the blow. This dress protected from the iron rings of the armor, which without it could enter the body even when the armor would not have been pierced.

Carapace, armor (le haubert ou cuirasse). A type of chain mail made of dense steel rings that covered the knight from neck to hips; Sleeves and leggings (le chausses) made of rings were subsequently added to it: a steel plaque on the chest covered the armor; a hood, also made of rings, hung on his back; the knight covered his head with it when he took off his helmet. Subsequently, chain mail was replaced by armor, breastplates, bracers and legguards, also made of iron. All parts of this armor were so tied together that they did not interfere with free movements, because they moved and moved apart.

Half caftan (le cotte d'armes). Over the armor and armor they wore something like a dalmatic or epancha without sleeves, with a knight's coat of arms, often made of gold or silver brocade, trimmed with expensive fur; under it they wore a scarf, or a baldric, or a leather belt with gilded nails , on which the sword was hung.

Gaiters (le tassettes). These were iron plaques attached to the armor from the waist to half the thighs. Amices or shoulder pads And with pins (epaulieres et genouilleres) were iron plaques adapted to cover the shoulders and knees without impeding movement; the former were attached to the breastplate, and the latter to the legguards.

Shield (l "ecu ou bouclier), not used in battles, was wooden, covered with leather, iron or other hard substance to withstand spear blows. The word ecu comes from the Latin scutum - the name given by the Romans to an oblong shield covered with leather. Coats of arms were depicted on the shields Hence the name of the French coin representing the shield of France.

Armament of the squire . The squire had neither bracers, nor a crest, nor iron scabbards; he wore a shishak, a gobisson and a steel breastplate.

Horse armament. The horse's head was carefully covered with either a metal or leather headpiece, the chest with iron plaques, and the sides with leather. The horse was also covered with a blanket or saddle cloth made of velvet or other material, on which the knight's coats of arms were embroidered. Such armed horses were called les chevaux bardes.

A spear (la lance). Spears were made from straight light wood - pine, linden, elm, aspen, etc.; the best ones were ash ones. A steel tip was tightly inserted into the upper end of the spear. A knight's banner or weather vane with a long fluttering end was attached to the top of the spear. The squire did not have a spear, he could only fight with a shield and sword. But if he bore the title of poursuivant d'armes, then he could be in full knightly armor, with the exception of only special differences - gilded spurs and so on.

Sword (l "epee). It was wide, short, strong, pointed only on one side and highly tempered so as not to break on armor and helmets. Over time external view swords changed: they began to be made very long, wide and pointed. Ephesus has always represented a cross.

Dagger (la misericorde). Daggers were worn at the belt. The name la misericorde was given to the dagger because in chest-to-chest combat, when both the spear and the sword along their length became useless, the knight resorted to this weapon to force the prone enemy to beg for mercy.

Berdysh or halberd (la hache d'armes) - a small handle; a double blade: one like an ordinary ax, and the other long, pointed, sometimes with two diverging ends.

Mace or mace (la masse ou massue). This weapon was also used quite often; it consisted of a thick club, the size of an adult’s arm, 2.5 feet long, with a ring at one end; a chain or strong rope was attached to it so that the club would not escape from the hands; at the other end a ball was attached to three chains; the club was all made of iron.

Mushkel And war hammer (le mail ou maillet et le marteau d'armes) differed only in that both ends of the front sight were only slightly rounded, while the military hammer had one end rounded and the other pointed.

Crooked knife (le fauchon ou fauchard) - a weapon rarely used in action; it had a long handle and was sharpened on both sides like a double-edged sickle.

These were the defensive and offensive weapons of the knights. It has changed over time and has finally been replaced firearms. What was the physical strength of these warriors, who did not take off their weapons for whole days and endured the hardships of the journey and battle in them! And at the same time, what agility, lightness, agility to jump up and dismount from a horse without touching the stirrup! Finally, what an art to wield a spear, sword and reed in such heavy armor! It is clear that such a craft was learned for a long time and with difficulty, and that learning had to begin from childhood.